Republicans Blast Cory Booker For Becoming Famous ‘While The People In Newark Die’

A press release sent out Friday by the National Republican Senatorial Committee highlighted an obscure YouTube video in which a woman accused New Jersey Democratic Senate candidate and Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker of blocking residents on Facebook and Twitter who reached out to him with concerns about a crime wave in the city.

Over the last two weeks there was a spate of 10 killings in 10 days in Newark, and the video was purportedly an interview of a woman who said Booker is becoming “national figure while the people in Newark die off slowly.”

“Unfortunately, when residents of Newark get on Facebook and Twitter with him and tell these real stories to get it out, he blocks us,” the woman says in the clip.

The video, which the NRSC described as a “viral news video,” had been viewed 372 times on YouTube since it was posted Wednesday.

“Where is Cory Booker? Instead of leading his city and helping the desperate residents of Newark, Booker seems more concerned with raising his national profile and millions of dollars for his campaign,” NRSC Communications Director Brad Dayspring said in the press release. “Instead of blocking people begging him for help on Twitter and social media, Cory Booker should try helping them instead. The people of New Jersey don’t need a Hollywood celebrity in the Senate, they need a leader who will focus on the problems at home and fix them.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hunter Walker is a national affairs reporter for TPM. He came to the site in 2013 from the New York Observer. He has also written for New York Magazine, Gawker, the Village Voice, Forbes, The Daily, and Deadspin. He can be reached at hunter@talkingpointsmemo.com